Exactly one month to the day since his last feature race win, Brent Vosbergen has returned to the winner’s circle at Western Australia’s Perth Motorplex, claiming what was the second round of the Wild West Shootout.
The event was the eighth round of the Wild West Series, presented by Maddington Toyota and CanningVale Toyota.
Big fields contested the four heat races, with wins being shared by Joe Chalmers, Warren Oldfield, Peter Nicola and Jay Cardy.
Chalmers, courtesy of his win and a second place, would start from pole position in the 30-lap affair, joined on the front row by opening round winner Kye Blight who grabbed a second and a third in his preliminaries.
As the race went green, Chalmers was able to grab the lead immediately with Blight and Oldfield in hot pursuit.
Blight was high and Oldfield low on the track, the duo just 0.023 seconds apart as they completed lap two behind Chalmers, while Vosbergen was lurking right behind them looking for a way through.
Chalmers and Blight managed to pull away slightly from the field, going side-by-side for the lead and Blight able to edge past to take over the point on lap four.
Vosbergen went high and grabbed third on lap six, then set out to close the gap on second placed Chalmers.
Lap 11 saw Vosbergen shoot by on the inside of Blight to take second, but the lap was not complete as a couple of cars came together right in front of the leaders to bring out the yellow flag.
The attempt at a restart saw a seven-car pile up on turn four coming to the green flag, names including Abbey Pickering, Brad Blake, Mat Robbins, Daniel Ameduri, Nathan Callaghan, Greg Horan and Peter Walker were all involved.
The next attempt saw another two cars at the back of the field come together and spin in turn three before they even got to the start. At the same time, four cars came together in the same place as the last attempt at a start without the race officially going green.
The mess prompted the stewards to line up the remaining competitors single file for the ensuing attempt.
Nineteen cars were able to restart and Blight took full advantage, going underneath Chalmers in turn two and pulling clear into the lead down the back straight.
Vosbergen would chase down and pass Blight like he was standing still for the lead, quickly building a gap as Jamie Oldfield, Chalmers and Warren Oldfield also began to close on Blight once more.
Lapped traffic came into play for Vosbergen, but he simply shifted where he wanted the car and cruised around them, building his lead each and every lap.
Although Vosbergen got caught up in lapped traffic in the dying stages, he had enough of a lead to defeat Blight, with Chalmers and Jamie Oldfield next across the line in a race that saw three different leaders, four official lead changes and a pile of other ones almost every lap.
With two nights of racing now complete, the points are still tight in both the Wild West Showdown and the Pro Dirt Series.
There are now just a few days until the late models are at it again, heading down to Albany Speedway Club on Saturday night for the third round of the Wild West Shootout presented by McPhee Freight.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1. A1 Brent Vosbergen, 2. 31 Kye Blight, 3. 23 Joe Chalmers, 4. 51 Jamie Oldfield, 5. 15 Warren Oldfield, 6. 11 Jason Oldfield, 7. 50 Veronica McCann, 8. V1 Peter Nicola, 9. 26 Ken Macpherson, 10. 52 Jay Cardy, 11. 54 David Nylander, 12. 94 Luke Halliday, 13. USA14 Jeff Roth (29), 14. 91 Michael Holmes (29), 15. 93 Nathan Callaghan (29), 16. 04 Greg Horan (29), 17. 39 Chris Barrow (28), 18. 74 Nathan Richards (26). DNF: T6 Brad Smith (10), 0 Brad Blake (10), 155 Daniel Ameduri (10), 6 Peter Walker (10), 57 Mat Robbins (10), 95 Abbey Pickering (10). Total Time: No Time. Winning Margin: 1.862. Fastest Lap: 17.388 Veronica McCann.